There the water was discharged into the Spijkenisser harbor at low tide and then into the Oude Maas. Via signals with the blades, the Spijkenisser watermill indicated to his colleagues when they could grind and when to stop because the level in the chimney breast was getting too high.
However, these mills waited for wind for large parts of the year and could not grind. As a result, the polders were often flooded. When steam technology became available in the 19th century, steam pumping stations were built. In 1868 one was erected on the site of a burnt-down wind water mill in the Spijkenisser polder, along the Vierambachtenboezem, just west of the Zinkseweg. This was built by the polder board of Spijkenisse. Later, the Putten Water Board decided to establish a joint steam pumping station for the drainage of the Vierambachtenboezem, near the drainage sluice at the port of Spijkenisse. The first stone was laid in 1881, and in 1884 this steam pumping station, called "De Leeuw van Putten", was put into use. After that, the water mills became obsolete and disappeared from the landscape. In 1948, De Leeuw van Putten switched to electricity, after an emergency electrical supply had to be used at the end of the Second World War due to a lack of coal. This pumping station and the Vierambachtenboezem are still in use to drain excess water from the surrounding polders. The bosom is now also used for recreational purposes.